There is an ever increasing need for focal plane arrays to be used in imaging cameras that work in the Terahertz regime of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. There are large number of applications in THz imaging that await the arrival of an imager having the attributes such as high sensitivity, high resolution, well-known spectral characteristics, size, etc. Imaging in the THz regime may have applications to viewing through some obstacles that are otherwise opaque to the visible, UV, infrared and x-ray segments of the spectrum. Therefore, this is may be an important application area in the areas of national security, homeland defense, etc. Microwave imaging technology (even though the radiation used may penetrate and transmit through opaque barriers, such as cloths, wooden crates, etc.) is not always adequate because of poor resolution due to long wavelength of the microwaves used. Many such applications and proposed methods for implementation are described by P. H Siegel in “THz Technology: An Overview” IEEE Transactions On Microwave Theory and Techniques, March 2002, pp. 910–928, reprinted in International Journal of High Speed Electronics and Systems, Vol. 13, No. 2 (2003) pp. 351–394. Therefore there is a need in the art for high frequency imaging applications particularly in the THz regime of the EM spectrum.
As used herein, several terms should first be defined. By definition, microwaves are the radiation that lie in the centimeter wavelength range of the EM spectrum (in other words: 1<λ<100 cm, that is, the frequency of radiation in the range between 300 MHz and 30 GHz, also known as microwave frequencies). Electromagnetic radiation having a wavelength longer then 1 meter (or frequencies lower then 300 MHz) will be called “Radio Waves” or just “Radio Frequency” (RF). For simplicity in this disclosure, the RF spectrum is considered to cover all frequencies between DC (0 Hz) and 300 MHz. Millimeter Waves (MMW) are the radiation that lie in the range of frequencies from 30 GHz to 300 GHz, where the radiation's wavelength is less than 10 millimeters. Finally, electromagnetic frequencies from 300 GHz to 30 THz are described as submillimeter waves, or terahertz frequencies. Anything above 30 THz are considered as optical frequencies (or wavelengths), which includes infrared (1R) and visible wavelengths. The optical range is divided into bands such as infrared, visible, ultraviolet. For purposes of this disclosure, millimeter and submillimeter frequencies are described throughout, however, these same principles apply to submillimeter and smaller (higher frequency wavelengths), therefore submillimeter, as used herein, can include optical frequencies. As known to those of ordinary skill in the art, for practical purposes the “borders” for these above these frequency ranges are often not precisely observed. For example, a cell phone antenna and its circuitry, operating in the 2.5+GHz range is associated with RF terminology and considered as part of RF engineering. A waveguide component for example, covering the Ka band at a frequency around 35 GHz is usually called a microwave (and not a MMW) component, etc. Accordingly, these terms are used for purposes of consistently describing the invention, but it will be understood to one of ordinary skill in the art that alternative nomenclatures may be used in more or less consistent manners.